2/20 Interactive Fiction and Biblical Interpretation

 

           Interaction fiction is one of the earliest and most interesting forms of virtual reality. Simply using a text based interface, it is able to create a seemingly limitless world in which the “player” or secondary author of the piece is able to move about with complete freedom. This is in fact an illusion, as the parameters of the program determine where a player can go and what they can do. While this may seem similar to the contemporary adventure video game such as Tomb Raider or something similar, there is one key difference, and that is that fact that the player is contributing to the work through their text input into the program. This distinction seems to put IF on a different theoretical level than a game, in which ludology can directly apply; rather it has a deeper interactive element. Much of the player input could lead to no productive ends and the program remaining unresponsive; however, it is this illusion of input and a final product consisting of both the programmed language and the human input that leads to a work of fiction that has two authors. One author, the programmer, has complete knowledge of all aspects and possibilities within the game, while the second author, the “player” has at the beginning of the text no knowledge of the environment but at the end has reached a complete understanding of the entire virtual world. It is this learning and discovering aspect of things that separates the text based environment from the visual, movie like environments of modern games as well. In an adventure based third person game one can simply walk around the provided space to see all that can be seen. In an IF there is a fourth wall in which the player must choose what they feel is important to explore, and those explanations are limited or enhanced by the text. There is no pre-determined order of events one must pass through in a linear fashion, but rather one must discover this order through a chaotic world in order to continue, and multiple paths may be taken.

            This summation of an IF could be compared to a biblical read, or biblical interpretation. While one is not able to physically input data into the bible and generate a new read out, the quest to find answers within the bible involves theological dead ends and correct paths to simpler answers. Eric Eve’s IF work “All Hope Abandon” draws on this comparison, inserting biblical text into an adventure based IF.
   A Religious ritual could be looked at in a similar manner, using designated input or preprogrammed activity to reach a desired outcome.